Courting Cherries

I Feel Like a New Boy

Disclaimer: I don't own Hot Gimmick, or really anything else of that magnitude for the matter. If I did I would move to Europe and chase after pigeons for fun.

A/N: (8/11/05) Everyone's like, WTF? Where's the new chapter, bitch? I'm sorry, I'm just re-vamping past chapters with spelling and format. This story has become a drama and I think it should look like one. New chapter's coming soon!

She stood a little in shock after she digested the whole situation. This was behavior expected of her, not Hatsumi. Not her shy, dorky, older sister. It just wasn't like her, something had to be amiss. So she threw a plan into action, spying was something Akane was damn good at. And spying is what she would do. After all, what else could she do? She had to try and help Hatsumi. Her older sister did so much for her…

Akane moved to walk threw the waves of people on the sidewalk and down to the café where Hatsumi and Azusa had gone just a couple minutes before. Stopping before walking up to the window, and almost possibly giving herself away, she ducked into an alley to the left. I can't be noticed, then I won't get anything.

She looked around the alley, "yep I definitely don't want to stay here," she said quietly to herself. The alley was the poster for filth. Dirt, grim, indescribable insects, and rodents; not a place Akane Narita needed to be.

Akane heard a 'creak' and jumped a little, thinking it another odd animal until she spun to see a boy. He was rather cute, and by way of dress must have worked in the café itself. In the middle of throwing some trash away, eww gross, he noticed her.

"Hey what are you doing back here, miss? This isn't the best place for you to be, its dirty and-"

"Do you think you could do me a favor?" Akane placed her hand together behind her back and held them together. Pushing her chest out she threw on a cute, irresistible face. Who could say no to this? That's right, no one! Akane thought, as she saw the boy internally thinking it over.

"What's the favor?"

Bingo! I'm in…

Hatsumi and Azusa sat down with their coffee, having chosen to stay here rather then walk around with it. They sat at a small nook off in a corner, secluded and private. Azusa offered to let Hatsumi slide in first, and then followed closing her into her seat.

He watched her start to sip her drink, a small squeak came form her mouth. Raising an eyebrow in question at her noise, she mumbled, "it's too hot."

"You'll just have to let it cool down a little, I think its extra hot because they just put in a new batch."

She nodded, smiled, and looked down. Stirring at the chocolaty-brown liquid with a stick. "I hope my mother doesn't find out about last night. I don't wanna be in trouble again. Especially because she's so worried about my relationship with Ryoki.

"Your relationship with Ryoki?" Azusa asked in monotone, hiding his bitterness.

"Yeah, she thinks that if I make him too mad that Ryoki will tell his mother to kick us out. But I know he wouldn't do that." Hatsumi looked back up to him, finding an unreadable look on his face.

I didn't mean to question your mother's paranoia, I was asking about your relationship itself. "So you and Ryoki are together, as in you're his girlfriend?" Azusa slipped in, he went to lean back against the booth and ignore his coffee. He wanted to make sure he paid attention to this conversation.

"Well I guess so," Hatsumi offered.

"You guess so?"

"Well…yes, Ryoki and I are together," this time she gave her answer a little more confidence. She smiled up at him, not sure what to expect of him to say next. All she got was silence.

"That's really weird," Azusa said after a couple minutes, surprising Hatsumi a little. She thought that the topic had ended. "I know I've seen the two of you together a lot but its strange to her you say that. I mean this is the same guy who pushed you down the stairs as a kid. You used to be so scared ofhim, you know?"

"I know. Things are different now though, Ryoki isn't the same guy who pushed me down the stairs-"

"But he hit you the other day. What the fuck was that about?" Azusa had no mind to hide the hint of anger now like he did that day. That day he hadn't come to the realization he was placed with now.

Hatsumi didn't know what to say. What could she? True, she didn't like the fact that he'd hit her, but she had been with Azusa and Shinogou, and then she didn't call him at all…

"Your coffee's probably okay now," Azusa said finally, after she gave no answer.

"Huh?" She questioned, not having heard him. She looked up at him, realizing this was the second lull they had had in their conversation.

"Your coffee," he pointed and smiled at her, "I think it might be okay for you to drink now."

"Oh, yeah I think so too." Hatsumi picked up the cup and drank, hoping the topic of discussion was dropped. It was hard to justify her relationship with Ryoki to someone else, especially because she sometimes had a hard time justifying it to herself.

"Oh, shit!" Hatsumi heard him say as she continued to consume the soothing liquid. He was starring at his watch, his face a held an annoyed look.

"I'm gonna be late I have for a shoot this morning. It starts in five minutes," he moved his hand to his pocket, his face becoming angered when he didn't find what he wanted. "I don't have my cell phone with me. I have to call Rina and tell her I'm gonna be a little late. I don't suppose you have a phone with you?" He asked, remembering the one he had given her.

"I got a new one, but I didn't bring it with me last night. Ryoki's gonna be mad about that too," Hatsumi said, mumbling the last bit to herself. "Will they be mad at you?"

Azusa expression changed quickly to that of amusement. "They can't be. They practically begged me to do this for their magazine. I said I was gonna quit modeling, remember? Since I haven't been booking things a lot I've kind of been put on high demand"

"Oh well…okay, I'll go home now I guess," Hatsumi said and stood. She thanked him for the coffee, said she'd see him later and started to walk off.

"Hey, wait!" A voice stopped her from behind, it was Azusa.

"You wanna come to the shoot?"

Ryoki was feeling a lot of emotions he hadn't felt in a long time, first fear, regret, and now pain. Sure he was angry, but for some reason this hurt. He should have just gone, yelled at her, said something. Coming back here without knowing anything was just not good. He liked to be informed, not left out in the dark where his mind could wonder.

She was his girlfriend now! What the hell was she doing with him? Even if they weren't together, that was the guy who wanted to fuck her up! Ruin her father's life. She's the stupidest person in the entire world, her brain's not even the size of a pea. Is it even in existence?

He had to question her ability to function as a human being, had to think about something else. He couldn't think about what was really waiting, taunting him in the back of his mind. They way they looked together, so early in the morning. She slept with Azusa and not you… "For fucks sake, she was wearing the same clothes as last night!" Ryoki yelled, pulling the door open to the apartment, he knew no one was there. The house was empty; it was better that way.

You let yourself get attached to something again and look what happened. She obviously doesn't give a care about you.

Spinning around, he slammed the door. Then he heard an "Ouch!" and then "Awww!" Sounds of pain kept coming from behind the door. Ryoki didn't want to talk to anyone right now, but if it had to be someone at least it was a person who he could actually stand.

Ryoki opened the door, the anger lessened a little, but not much. "What do you want, Subaru?" Ryoki asked and grabbed his friends arm, dragging him off the floor and into the apartment.

"God, Ryoki! You slammed the door on my face," Subaru groaned, rubbing his cheek.

"So," Ryoki said standing, arms across his chest.

"So it hurt!"

"Well maybe you shouldn't have been standing there!"

Subaru didn't say anything, just let him win. Fighting with Ryoki, he'd learned over the years just wasn't worth it. It was part of the reason they got along so well. Ryoki was aggressive and Subaru was passive. They balanced each other out.

"I'm not in a good mood, I want to be by myself." Ryoki told him, stressing 'by myself.' He knew Subaru wasn't going to leave so quickly, but Ryoki still had to try.

"Well Akane told me to come," Subaru said, trying to find an explanation. He wanted to help Ryoki, but he knew it was best to leave him alone to fester, mostly from past experience. But he also knew, from very recent experience to listen to his new girlfriend as well. He could never win…

"Your going to listen to everything that stupid girl tells you to do! Her and her stupid, dumb sister!" Ryoki yelled again. This was going to go on for a while, the yelling, Subaru thought. Maybe the reason he yells so much is because it's the only way he knows how to express things. He's never been much of a talker…

"Yes, I'm going to listen to her. I've never had a girlfriend before, let alone someone like Akane. I don't want to mess it up," Subaru said quietly in comparison to Ryoki's booming voice. "I don't really know how these things work, you know being in a relationship."

"It sucks, that's how it work's. Damn girl doesn't do a damn thing that I say." Ryoki said in a more normal voice. "Girlfriends aren't worth it, that's why the one night stand was invented," Ryoki declared.

Yeah, like you know much about that, Subaru thought. This just wasn't working. Ryoki and he talked about school, anime, and things like that, but not about girls. The whole conversation just felt wrong and weird. Both of them were newbie's in this whole thing and they didn't know a thing.

"Do you wanna go do something?" Subaru asked, hoping to take Ryoki's mind off it. He hadn't really seen him like this before, but then again Ryoki had never had a girlfriend before.

"No, lock the door on your way out." Ryoki got up and walked towards him room, hands shoved in his pockets. Subaru could still see the anger coming off his friend in waves.

Go comfort your friend Subaru! Yeah that worked out well. Subaru did let himself out, locking the door behind him. Now he was unhappy. For his friend and because he was going to go have to tell Akane that he failed in that area. His life never used to be this complicated and then all of the sudden one day, out of the blue, things changed. He had always watched Gundam, wondering if real life could be that complex. Well he certainly got his answer.

Shoot! Akane thought, I couldn't catch a thing they said. Akane had placed herself in the door leading to the backroom compliments of her new best friend, bus-boy. She thought it had been a great position until they had to go and sit on the other side ofthe café. She even had trouble seeing that far. This never happen in the movies…James Bond my ass.

"Akane," someone from behind he called.

"I thought I told you thanks for the favor, but no. I'm not going to go out with you, sorry." Akane snipped, damn that bus-boy was annoying. He'd been bugging her ever since she took her stake-out location.

"Akane, it' me," Subaru said quietly walking up to her. He ignored the comment thrown at him before. Actually it kind of made him happy. Unless the guy asking her was some pimply-

"Subaru, I said what are you doing here?"

"Oh," Subaru scratched his head. "I tried to talk to Ryoki but he didn't really want to and…" He started to trail off.

"That's okay," Akane said; she looked glum. "I didn't do so well with my mission either. I was going to spy on them but it didn't work out so well." Akane took his hand in hers and wrapped her arm around his. The two of them headed out the back door and Akane threw a look at the horny bus-boy.

Subaru caught this, Yes!

They left the alley, still attached to one another. "Subaru, I still feel bad. We have to do something." Subaru looked next to him at her, he wasn't much taller then she.

Sometimes he wished she didn't have to be so involved…Akane wanted to make Ryoki and Hatsumi's problem, her problem. Actually more like theirs.

"Subaru?" Akane asked him quietly.

"Yeah?"

"I don't really know what's going on with the two of them, but I don't want you to ever be angry like that. I know we've only been together two weeks but still. I don't want to be unhappy like I know Hatsumi's gonna be when she finds out."

"Don't worry, I don't think I could ever be like Ryoki," Subaru said adding a little humor. Akane turned around, smiled, and hugged him.

"Good."

"Well that went better then the last time," Hatsumi told him as they walked back into the apartment complex, mid-afternoon. "At least none of the girls were mean to me."

"Yeah, but I think they knew not to mess with you. Word of mouth goes fast in that industry. Although I can guarantee their probably saying nasty stuff behind your back." Azusa turned to look down at her, catching her look of disappointment. "They don't matter though, never did. Girls like that are just trouble."

"Yeah, at least Akane isn't like that," Hatsumi replied. They stood together in the lobby, which was empty except for the door man. "Well I have to go get my little brother and the mail so I will see you later, okay. Bye, and thanks." She started to walk off, slowly taking her time.

"Yeah…Hey maybe I'll call you later so we can do something soon." Azusa waved once across with his hand and watched her go after nodding her head back at him. He stood still in the same spot, not moving. What was it he had to do? Oh yeah, meet with secret-agent-man at the shrub restaurant. "God, if that man is hiding behind a bush again…"

Azusa suddenly heard the noise of soft clicking on the tile floor, moving very fast. Expensive shoes, well who could this be? He turned around to run into no one other then Ryoki Tachibana. Ryoki looked shocked; he'd obviously not been watching where he was going. And he looked mad, real mad.

"What the fuck are you doing here!" Ryoki yelled at Azusa, causing the door man to head outside.

"I live here, just like you." Azusa stated smoothly, why the hell is he so mad at me?

Ryoki scuffed and pushed past him, violently brushing his shoulder.

"Hey what the hell did I do to you?" He knew Ryoki was like this a lot, but he was being an asshole. Hmm, maybe it was time to tell him about his epiphany. He was gonna wait a while, but the bastard deserved it now.

Ryoki spun around at the last question asked of him, pure murder on his face.

"Hey Tachibana, the way I see it you don't deserve Hatsumi, and neither do I. So in my book that makes her fair game. Understand what I'm saying, rich boy?" Azusa's expression remained the same as Ryoki's got worse. Azusa stayed perfectly nonchalant.

Until it hit him, literally. It hit him straight in the face, or more precisely his eye. And man did it hurt!

Ryoki had lunged at him and punched him in the eye. Azusa went down, clutching the left side of his face before looking up to see Ryoki gone. Damn asshole ran away.

Azusa laughed a little, too stunned to think. "The magazine's not gonna like this."

A/N:This chapter is for thelittlestweasley. She helped me a great deal! Also, after said help, I've decided that this story is going to be slightly AU. I mean this in the sense that my story might sometimes conflict with the Manga. For the most part things will be the same, but I'm not a mind-reader. I have no idea what's gonna happen in future books, so I'm just gonna go with it : )

I don't have time to respond to all reviews but I'll take one because it was interesting. Dark Angel, you review was really not a flame at all. And flames are used for smore's any way's : ) I just wanted to explain why I call Shingou…Shinogou. The reason is because of a website I often visit that's in Japanese. It's called something like Hot Gimmick Café and is an official website in Japan. It only comes in Japanese but the pictures rock! Anyway, the author often writes articles for the manga there which an online friend of mine translates for me. For some reason, (Who knows why, maybe a nickname or inside joke) the author spells it Shinogou. That is the only exposure I have had to the Japanese names. So anyway I just wanted to clear that up, and I will keep spelling his name like that regardless as to whether its right or wrong. Also, I'm gonna try to post the link to the website, its really something everyone should check out, whether you can read Japanese or not. And no, it can't be translated using google, I tried that… : ( So thanks for your review and comments, I appreciate them.

Also thanks to everyone else, you guys are great! Sorry for the super long author notes. I talk too much! Little Emo ; )